Transcript Some Questions?

Pimp My Qual
AQR-QRCA Global Qualitative Conference
(Barcelona 2008)
Andy Barker, Head of Qualitative
YouGov plc, London
Aim of Paper
To challenge the qual
community to keep a watchful
eye on its ethics and to keep our
feet firmly on the ground whilst
our heads are firmly in the
clouds
Time precludes discussion of other
direction in written paper
• Some in research for this paper
suggested that qual’s “pimping”
has led to Emperor’s New
Clothes innovation
• See written paper for fuller
discussion of this
A Classic Model – Match Making
Consumers’
unmet
needs
Qualitative
Insight
Innovation,
Action,
Change
Company’s
commercial
needs
The Alternative Model – “Pimping”
Consumers’
vulnerability
Qualitative
Exploitation
Innovation,
Action,
Change
Company’s
commercial
needs
“Our relationship with truth is fundamental but
cracked, refracting confusingly like fragmented
glass. It is the core of our careers, the endgame
of every move we make and we pursue it with
strategies painstakingly constructed of lies and
concealment and every variation on
deception...This is my job and you don’t go into it
– or you don’t last – without some natural affinity
for its priorities and demands. What I am telling
you is two things: I crave truth. And I lie.”
Familiar?
Searching for truth
Nocturnal
Hang out with iffy types
Tactically sympathetic
Strategically empathetic
Use white lies, half truths
and benign deceits
Good with one-liners
Smart – sometimes smart
arsed
Some Questions?
• Do you never lie to respondents?
• Does your research achieve “good”?
• Would you never “exploit” respondents?
• Would you never persuade respondents
to do things they don’t want to do?
• Is your research socially responsible?
Some Answers?
• If you answered “no” to them all, you are very honest, self
aware – and possibly in trouble
• If you righteously answered “yes” to them all, you are a
Saint (or a liar)
• And if you didn’t understand the questions, you are not a
very good qual thinker
• But if any of those questions made you at least
uncomfortable, you are an authentic, human quallie.
Welcome
Some Questions?
• Do you never lie to respondents?
This is
something that
other people
have said about
the brand
I don’t know
about the
client’s plans –
I am just a
researcher
There are no
definite plans to
do this, it’s just
an idea at this
stage
This is
something I
have made up
to try and get a
response
The price will
go up, but you
won’t answer
properly if you
know that
This is their
big new
strategy – but
we don’t want
people to
realise
Some Questions?
• Does your research achieve “good”?
e.g. typical objectives
...obviously never, ever ...
To test and refine the concepts to
maximise propensity to purchase
To ensure that the concepts are carbon
neutral and only promote healthy eating
To explore the category with a view to
identifying gaps which can be exploited
by brand or product innovation
To explore the category with a view to
identifying ways in which we can make a
real difference to society
To understand the triggers which will drive
people to the brand
To understand how to get people to buy
less stuff they don’t really need
Some Questions?
• Would you never “exploit” respondents?
• NLP
• Group dynamics
• Projective & enabling techniques
• All exploit technologies, techniques,
psychology … with the end of gaining deeper
insight than “questioning” alone
Some Questions?
• Would you never persuade respondents to do
things they don’t want to do?
Aware,
Will Share
Aware,
Won’t Share
Unaware,
Will Share
Unaware,
Won’t Share
Some Questions?
• Is your research socially responsible?
•
•
•
•
•
•
More packaging
More products
More miles
More emotional need
More brand & commodity fetishism
More identity expressed through
consumption
So?
• Does qual research provide an authentic voice for
consumers in the marketing process …or is it a highly
developed form of exploitation?
“Push and pull factors have resulted in an industry
which one might argue has lost – or even sold – its
soul. Observational methodologies, client-consumer
connections, innovation workshops and use of
creative consumers, at very least stretch our
accepted and traditional ethical framework. Does
this matter? Do we need to rein in the newer
practices of qualitative research or should we shift
our ethical paradigm to be relevant to C21st
business & consumer culture.”
Pressures on Ethics – Pimp Factors
• Methodological innovation/reinvention
– Beyond traditional boundaries
– Pragmatism – if the cap fits
• Rise and rise of Para-Qual
• Corporate responsibility
– Clients
– Agencies
• Power to the people
– Democratisation of interactive capitalism
– Savvy consumers/respondents
Drivers for this paper
• Interesting experience at a Critical Marketing seminar
• Conducted some training of fresh new graduates
• Met some people whose MRS memberships had lapsed
• Media and corporate (client) interest in ethical behaviour
and social responsibility
• Came across a company who was conducting “good” qual
• Informal observation that I and my smart, liberal colleagues
use their smart liberalism to sell people things they don’t
always need !
Edgy examples that provoked Critical
Response
• Trained youth agents
• Low income consumer
projects
The unethical ethics of distance
• A downside of our impartiality is that consumers can be
treated as “disposable”; in some research this conflicts with
their expectations of direct results
I bared my
soul and all I
got was this
lousy T-shirt
Club membership and playing by the rules
• We all probably play by the membership rules of our professional
organisations – but what happens if you are not a member?
• Well, nothing – I know many practitioners who are not
• So there is a possibility of (benign) ethics creep
Passivity, responsibility and active good
• Qual research ethics are essentially
passive – get permission and don’t hurt
anyone!
• Increasing climate of corporate social
responsibility – where does qual fit ?
• Came across a company conducting
actively GOOD qual research
• What would happen if we were to
actively consider the moral framework
and consequences of our conclusions
and recommendations ?
Specific methods that push ethical
envelope
• Ethnography
• Client-consumer interaction
• Idea generation
• Deliberative methods
• Communities and panels
• Virtual worlds
More intrusive, personal, catch
people unawares?
Unmediated by “guardians of
the code”?
Questions of copyright and
moral ownership?
Leading people up the wrong
garden path?
A different form of engagement
requiring different rules?
A whole new world of positive
and negative possibility?
I asked some people about all this
• Qual researcher preoccupations
– Getting the job done
– Getting permission (first)
– Retaining professional ethical control/restricting
access
• Client priorities
– Assumption of ethics on part of agencies
– Otherwise its all about the business
• Academic issues
– More philosophical ethical issues
– Also validity and reliability of methods
The Consumer Perspective
• The Consumer Perspective
– A little cynical about how research is used
– Often feel gently forced down a certain route, if not response
– Qual “open-endedness” has higher status (allows my perspective)
but they notice funnelling
– Core ethical issues are
•
•
•
•
Intrusiveness & privacy
Anonymity & confidentiality
How intimate “data” are used
Idea ownership
– Balanced with general pragmatism about giving permission and
accepting consequences
The Consumer Perspective - Quotes
Most of the time it feels like
they ask me what I want
and do the opposite
I don’t like the idea of being
videod in my house – that’s
very intrusive
I worry that they are going
to burgle me later on !
It feels like they will be
advertising in your home on wallpaper on your fridge
I think the person who think
sup an idea should share
the rewards
Sounds like Guantanamo
style
Just because a person has
volunteered the idea,
companies can’t claim it as
their own
The Critical (Marxist) Perspective
• All of this discussion and research ethics generally masks the macro
situation which is that this is all about naked capitalism, dressed up – or
rather dressed down
• Qual research is an exploitative instrument of capitalism on dress down
Friday
But surely this misses the phenomenology of qual
•
•
•
•
Consumers appear to be unharmed by qual
They even enjoy it
It is a very modern form of engagement
It provides them with :
–
–
–
–
–
Building blocks of cultural capital
A way of being heard in the “media-brand-sphere”
It is one of many “games” they play
It is just another transaction in our mediatised chat culture
It provides an opportunity to playfully engage in our contemporary
identity economy
• And research tells us that it’s not really such a big deal to
them !
Maybe passive ethics misses point of “new capitalism”
• Perhaps we occupy a confused space in between two models - perhaps
we need to renegotiate our position in the emergent prosumption
marketplace
– Move from passively ethical to actively moral?
– Immerse entirely in the game (Ad funded qual?)
• Consumers would rather we started representing them fully and
accurately, without being too intrusive
– Really listening
– Not influencing, funnelling, directing
– Respecting, engaging and representing them as people
In Conclusion
• Frank Zappa once said that jazz is not
dead it just smells funny
• This is a very apt description for the
ethical status of qual – we should act
now to stop the potential stink later
• So qualitative research is obviously
not wrong ... but maybe it should be
more right
• Discuss...